Coupe: 2013 Subaru BRZ

2013 Subaru BRZ

PHOTO: Handout, Subaru

2013 Subaru BRZ

PHOTO: Handout, Subaru

By Derek McNaughton, National Post

Originally published: October 31, 2012

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Subaru and Porsche, the only automakers to routinely use boxer engines, have long enjoyed the beauty of the flat-four and flat-six. It is also why Subaru’s new BRZ rear-wheel-drive sports car beats with a specially developed 2.0-litre boxer engine, purposely engineered for the BRZ (Boxer, Rear-wheel-drive Zenith) and Toyota’s Scion FR-S.

The 200-horsepower engine is a sweetheart. While able to redline at 7,450 rpm, power arrives much earlier, starting at around 3,500 rpm. Coupled with the car’s light weight of 1,255 kilograms, the 200 hp easily motivates the BRZ up hills and through sweeping bends. It’s only when passing at high speed that a little more power would be welcomed.

Regardless, the true delight of this car is its handling, so pure is its response. The BRZ’s steering feels utterly connected to the road and to the car. It seems perfectly weighted and quick to turn in. Even though the car has an ideal weight balance of 53/47 biased to the front, on a racetrack the BRZ is more likely to oversteer as it exits a corner. The 215/45R17 Michelin Primacy tires that all BRZ models wear over 17-inch alloy rims tend to hold the car better than expected for a rear-wheel-drive vehicle.

Driven smartly, the BRZ responds with a delightful sense of playfulness and purpose, holding itself up with considerable composure through the corners, diving quickly into sharp turns, revealing itself as a car with a truly enjoyable character.

In other words, it’s an honest-to-goodness sports coupe. This does not come by luck. In the BRZ, the engine sits lower (by 120 millimetres) and farther back in the engine bay than the Impreza.

The car’s centre of gravity is 460 mm from the ground, lower than a Porsche Cayman’s. The battery is moved back near the firewall, the starter motor and power steering motor strategically located, such are just some of the measures taken to make the BRZ one of the best-handling cars one can buy for less than $30,000.

Yes, the base BRZ does sell for more than its twin, the Scion FR-S, but the BRZ includes such standard items as LED lighting, HID headlamps and touch screen navigation that includes Bluetooth phone and audio. The BRZ proves that Subaru does indeed have a sexy side, one that doesn’t need a single Sumo wrestler to help sell its cars.